Casa Pezo, the first home of the exclusive Solo Houses Collection, designed by Pezo Von Ellrichshausen

Designed by the Chilean agency Pezo Von Ellrichshausen, Casa Pezo constitutes the first initiative for Solo Houses, a unique property development programme in Europe, taking place at the heart of the outstanding natural site Matarraña, two hours south of Barcelona. In the long term, this project based on second homes should comprise a dozen houses designed by the most exciting international avant-garde architects.

The Chilean agency Pezo Von Ellrichshausen has just completed an amazing belvedere over the Natural Park Puertos de Beceite. Following the wishes of Christian Bourdais, who instigated Solo Houses, the architects had few restrictions when fulfilling their interpretation of a second home. This entrepreneur considers that this specific type of habitat can in fact offer its occupants freedom from preconceived notions of housing, and who can therefore benefit from a unique architectural design.

For Maurizio Pezo and Sofia von Ellrichshausen, this house would then above all dominate the landscape. Like a platform separated from the mainland by a podium half as wide as the inhabited part providing its occupants with a floating sensation.

The structure of Casa Pezo is concrete and the design is governed by perfect symmetry and homothety, focusing on a play on verticality and horizontality. Prior to even entering the house, access is on the ground floor through one of the two doors visible.

Once on the upper floor it is rapidly clear that the monolith flanking the podium is a swimming pool occupying the central part of a patio totally covered with ceramic tiling. A reference to Mediterranean architecture where solace in coolness and shade is essential.

The size of the swimming pool, a quarter of the patio, sets the standard that defines each of the modules deployed in a peripheral ring. Beyond this rigorous and calculated geometric distribution, Casa Pezo is a house with a very simple design and equipped minimally, conducive to relaxation: a dining room, a living room and two bedrooms, with very little furniture most of which was designed moreover by architects. It is entirely open to the exterior by means of large windows that can be completely folded back so that the spaces become fully-fledged terraces.

This architecture belongs to an estate of fifty or so hectares that will soon be shared by ten or so other houses already for sale. Thus, each of the properties has grounds of an average of 3 to 4 ha left open however so as to preserve this idea of total integration in the context of this outstanding natural site.

Marketed by the real estate agency Architecture de Collection, the first agency specializing in the sale of outstanding 20th and 21st century architecture, the programme gathers renowned architects such as Sou Fujimoto, designer of the current Serpentine Gallery pavilion, Didier Faustino, Office KGDVS, Johnston Marklee, MOS Office, Studio Mumbai, TNA Takei Nabeshim...For the price of a 100m2 apartment in a city, Solo Houses proposes more than a simple property, since the product resides above all in the creative concept and there is little to match it. Christian Bourdais is fond of this principle of collecting original and unique designs. Patterned on the model of the Case Study House Program that gathered the most talented architects of the moment from the 1950s to 1970s to explore the concept of a modern and economic vacation spot in the context of California. Half a century later, each of these productions - 36 projects some of which have not been constructed - has become a fully-fledged work of art that amateur collectors of architecture would strive to own.

Solo Houses is in this aspect, a project of modernity as well as a reflection on our way of life, based on an extraordinary art of living experience. For any information about Solo Houses: www.solo-houses.com and solohouses.architecturedecollection.fr

Visits of Casa Pezo and of the estate, as well as a presentation of the other house projects, are available on the 28th, 29th and 30th June and the 20th and 21st September. Booking and information: Architecture de collection, tel. +33 (0)1 53 00 97 44 and www.architecturedecollection.fr

Source: Architecture de Collection